Tag: Sunny Awhefeada

Why Can’t You Fight With Trump?

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By Sunny Awhefeada   The interrogative title of today’s intervention is directed at the President of the Nigerian Senate and Chairman of the National Assembly, Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio. In the wake of America’s President Donald Trump’s christening of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” (CPC), with intimations of a likely military intervention if the Nigerian government did nothing to stop what he called “Christian genocide” Nigerian government people spoke in a measured and supplicatory tone. The responses were most cautious and courteous in a manner with which they…

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Okuama And An Army Of Anything Goes

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By Sunny Awhefeada     At the onset of what was to snowball into disdain for the military in 1993, Nigeria’s retiring Chief of Army Staff in the soldierly character of Lt. General Salihu Ibrahim told the nation that the Nigerian army had “become an army of anything goes”. The general and gentleman officer reputed for being one of the most apolitical and brilliant soldiers the nation ever produced made that germane point during the ceremonial pulling out that marked the end of his glorious career in an institution that…

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Hurray To Thomas Awolowo Edjerunuketa @ 70

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By Sunny Awhefeada     History is a class conscious calling. It is strongly so to the extent that even those who write or encode history are never part of it. The encoders of the exploits of great empire builders are soon forgotten while the subjects of the chronicles they build remain eternal occupants in the many mansions of history. The encoders merely show up as footnotes while the deeds and misdeeds of the subjects that they gave life through their scribal efforts bestride the pages of time. A more…

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A Nation Without Roads by Sunny Awhefeada

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This essay was first published on September 7, 2019   By Sunny Awhefeada   The road constitutes a metaphor of life’s journey for Africans. It is central to the configuration and understanding of the metaphysical nexus between the abode of the dead and that of the living that we call life. The metaphoric and metaphysical essence of the road also mediates life’s journey and its uncertain twists and turns. The road is benign as it connects people and places. The road is also a cruel phenomenon as it has thrown…

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Okuama: When a Nation Terrorizes Her Citizens

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By Sunny Awhefeada     Before bursting into global consciousness, Okuama was a small agrarian community nestled on the bank of the Forcados, one of the many rivers that sustain the wetland character of the Niger Delta. As an Urhobo community, it occupies a place of fondness as the home of the first Urhobo and first African Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Benin, Bishop Agori Iwe. Okuama was never associated with violence or any other act of infamy, the kind of which shot it into global reckoning in March…

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Godwin Awhin And The Inevitability Of Mortality

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By Sunny Awhefeada   Growing up, we were made to think or we naturally felt that the white race was better endowed or superior to the black race. Our parents talked about “oyibo” referring to the white man and “Inoko” referring to London with an accent that conferred sublimity on both. They gave children names that idealized and idolized “oyibo”. School also did not help matters. We were not only taught “why Africa remained a dark continent for a long time”, we took lessons that seemed to validate how the…

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Is Fencing Nigeria the Solution?

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By Sunny Awhefeada   Nigeria is at war! Make no mistake about it. The nation has become a sprawling killing field irrigated by the blood of compatriots. And it appears as if the armed forces are overwhelmed. War induces trauma in a number of ways. The fighting troops faced with the stark reality of death before a maniacal opponent could buckle and collapse even without the latter firing a shot. Soldiers are human and they dread mortality. Soldiers are the first victims of trauma in war situations. The thought of…

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A Nation On Trial By Sunny Awhefeada

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By Sunny Awhefeada The Nigerian state is undergoing a series of turmoil that is a desideratum in her sojourn to nationhood. Great nations did contend with such moments in their history. The journey to nationhood is not a hundred metre dash. It is long, tortuous and treacherous. It births heroes and throws up villains. While the heroes struggle to delineate the clear path the nation should walk, the villains deploy everything including subterfuge to subvert the quest in order to satisfy some base desires that often denude the majority of…

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Do You Know Who The Fuck I Am?

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By Sunny Awhefeada     The vulgar title of this piece owes its shocking essence to the vulgarity of a lawbreaker who masquerades as a lawmaker. I have resolved not to mention his name throughout this intervention in order not to dignify him and reduce this column to the base degree of his character. The lawmaker who is a member of the Federal House of Representatives is also a fake senator as he thumped his chest and told his victim “I am a senator”. That wasn’t a slip of tongue,…

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What Is The Meaning Of Independence

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By Sunny Awhefeada I must begin by confessing that the title of the present discourse is not my invention. It was what I thought was an innocent question from Isio, my eight years old daughter. The day was Monday, the eve of this year’s Independence Day anniversary and the time was morning just before seven o’clock. As has been the norm since 2008, I already had the key to the car in my hands waiting as my wife dressed Isio up for school so I could take her on school…

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